Boston Celtics 86
Orlando Magic 77
Boston Celtics keeps proving why they are the team to beat in the East. Short handed, they still held the explosive Magic to just 77 points, while cruising to a win over its Eastern conference rival. Both the teams meet in last year’s Eastern conference semi final, which Orlando ended up winning in 7 games.
Celtics were lead by a balanced scoring with Ray Allen scoring 18. Rondo had 17 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists. Vince Carter scored 27 for Orlando, and Howard added 20 boards and 4 blocks.
Orlando started off well and went into lead, but the pace of the game slowed down and played right into Celtics’ style. Celtics dominated the second quarter and took a 11 point lead into half. Orlando was never able to recover from their second quarter, where they scored just 8 points. Magic matched their franchise low for first half points with 27, set on Jan 24 2005 at Houston.
It was a grind out victory for Celtics, and a frustrating Christmas for Magic. Magic had 18 turnovers to Celtics 20 but were out-rebounded 48-43.
Both the Eastern conference contenders had a off day with Celtics shooting 42.7%, while Magic shot a dismal 33.3% from the floor. Celtics were able to deny Howard from getting the ball, who took just 7 shots while making one and had 7 turnovers.
Note: Celtics were without their star forward, Paul Pierce, who was out due to a knee infection. Tony Allen, starting for the first time this season, scored 16 points.
Box Score
Courtesy NBA.com
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